All I Need To Be
by Rebellwithoutacause
Summary: My whole life, all I'd ever wanted to feel was complete and at peace. Confident in my own strength to look after myself, but also with love to soothe the hurts and support me when I was afraid. In so few words he'd made me all I needed to be. A look through Kushina's eyes as she falls in love with Minato.


_**Hi guys! So, I just recently watched the arc where Naruto meets Kushina and she tells him the story of how she met and fell in love with Minato. I was so moved and inspired that I had to write piece. Depending on reviews (hint hint) I will might do a companion piece from Minato's point of view. Bare in mind I didn't just take the arc and write it in first person perspective, I added some other scenes to give it more depth, but I tried to make it as realistic as possible. I really hope you enjoy this story and reviews are much loved! **_

**_Disclaimer: I don't own anything but if I did, I would totally squish Minato and hug him for all eternity cause he's just that amazing. Ok, I'll stop... :3 _**

Being afraid isn't an option for any shinobi, but especially for myself, I don't have that luxury. I was brought to Konoha for the express purpose of being the Nine Tails Jinchuriki, and there was really nothing I could do about it. They needed someone with unique, strong chakra to be able to contain the monster and keep the balance amongst the villages. After my own village had been destroyed by war I knew how crucial that balance was. Despite all of those reasons, as I was led by an ANBU shinobi into Konoha, I could not help but feel afraid.

I tried to be optimistic. I wanted to believe that when I came to this new place that the people there would at least be civil towards me. I came from a village that was closely related to them in blood and in bond. Surely I could not be so different from them that I would be a real outsider? I discovered how wrong I was the first day of the Academy. Being teased for my round face and my red hair hurt just like a kunai in the back. What had I ever done to them? They didn't even stop to think about getting to know me. They just pointed and laughed and made their stupid jokes. And so I did the only thing I could think of, the only thing I knew how. I stood up and shouted my name and declared that I would be the first female Hokage this village had ever seen.

In hindsight that probably wasn't the best idea. Would a village even allow an outsider to become its leader? But I was young and I wasn't thinking about the future. I just wanted to say something, anything, to shut those horrible boys up. When one stood up from his desk I was looking for something to hurl at him in anger, thinking he was going to jeer at me too, but I was stopped.

"I want to be a great Hokage too. Someone who will be admired by everyone in the village."

Stunned, I stared at him for a long moment. He looked about my age with thick spiky blonde hair that stood up on his head like a pointy halo. His voice was different from the others, instead of cold and jeering, his was warm and sincere. He closed his eyes as his fist rested against his chest.

I brushed it off. He probably had friends here that would corrupt him as soon as class was dismissed. I balled my fists up in anger as the teacher led me to my desk and the lesson resumed. For the rest of the day most of the class just whispered and hissed behind their hands at me. If that was all that happened, I knew that I could endure it. But it wasn't.

The second day was worse. I showed up to class and immediately I was surrounded by a gang of boys who began to poke and grab at me, pulling on my hair.

"We have a new name for you! Tomato! With your fat round face and bright red hair, you look just like one! A tomato that everybody hates!"

They all jeered and pulled on my hair some more, trying to pinch my cheeks. My hands balled into fists as white-hot anger roiled through my veins.

"Knock it off!" I snapped, pulling out of their grasps. They came back towards me and I went to hit them. "I mean it ya know! Back off!"

They just kept going, all the while jeering that horrible name. I didn't even try to keep control. I was going to teach them a lesson so they'd never ever mess with me again!

I grabbed the nearest one and using his momentum I slung him around as hard as I could, using his body to smack the others out of the way. They fell into crumpled heaps and I tossed the one in my hands away. When he hit the floor I pounced on him, punching him as hard as I could in the back of the head. It felt so good to take out my aggression on him, to prove that I wasn't just some girl who would run away crying. I could stand up for myself, and I was never going to let them forget it.

"I don't like tomatoes either ya know! Keeping calling me that and you are really going to get it!" I shouted at him. I kept hitting him despite the stinging pain in my knuckles. When I finally climbed off he ran away crying, clutching the back of his head. I crossed my arms over my chest and stamped my foot, nodding my head sharply. I stared at the rest of the class who gave me looks like I'd grown another head.

"Anybody else wanna start calling me that?" I yelled.

They all skittered back to their desks, the ones I'd knocked down limping a little. But the boy with spikey blonde hair just stared at me, wide blue eyes an undecipherable blend of thoughts and feelings. But I did notice the subtle grin on his face.

"What are you laughing at?" I snapped as I roughly smacked him in the shoulder as I went past to my desk, defiantly flipping my hair as I did so. So what if they made fun of my red hair and my face? As long as I could hand them their teeth every day it didn't matter. The blonde boy's shoulders shrunk forward as he tried to disappear into his hooded sweatshirt to avoid drawing my attention towards himself.

Days passed and we kept learning about shinobi techniques and skills, like how to run through trees and use our entire body as a weapon. We wouldn't move onto real weapons until later but for now we were still taught how to kick and punch with skill and strength. I reveled in it. Every day that passed I had a new technique to use on my tormentors, and use it I did. I quickly became known as the Red Hot Habanero. I was actually kind of proud of that name. I was hot, and I burned if you got to close. People had a healthy respect for me now. No one would dare come to pick on me alone. Now they only came for me in groups of at least three or more.

I had learned the blond boy's name by now. Minato. I didn't really know what to think of him. He seemed smart and he was certainly strong when we practiced taijutsu but he never spoke to me and he never tried to help when I was being bullied. That was fine by me. I could take care of myself. I'd show the world I could take care of myself. I didn't need anybody! But it was still odd to see him watching me.

I caught him at it one day during lunch at the Academy. We'd all gone outside to enjoy the warm weather and as I was finishing my meal I saw out of the corner of my eye the usual gang of cohorts that came to bother me whenever possible. I set my finished plate aside and stood up.

"Ya know I'd of thought by now you'd be tired of eating your own teeth." I said as I cracked my knuckles threateningly.

"There's something we came to remind you about." The ring leader barked.

I curled my fingers into fists. "Oh really, what's that?"

"Even a habanero can be eaten."

They fanned out and leapt for me. I took the bombardment, skidding backwards as their shoulders rammed into mine. I dug my heels in and socked one of them in the stomach, dropping him to his knees. I loosened the weight on my feet and kicked back with my leg, spinning and bringing my heel down hard, crushing the knee of another while my hand flew out, trying to punch the third in the eye, but he was able to escape the perimeter of my destruction.

I jumped back while his cronies staggered to their feet. By now the other kids had come to watch too. Hesitantly I looked for Minato and saw him perched in a nearby tree, his blue eyes trained directly onto me.

I paid the price of being distracted. The ringleader jumped me and flung me to the ground hard by the wrist, pouncing on me and grabbing a thick handful of my red hair, pulling as hard as he could.

"That hurts ya know! Get off!" I screeched. I flung my elbow back and caught him in the ribs but it wasn't enough to get him off. I bowed forward into the ground trying to ease the pressure in my head even as his fist was pummeling my back and shoulders.

"Get off I said!" I reached behind me and grabbed a chunk of his hair and with that alone I flung him over my head and slammed him into the ground. A surge of power flooded through me and I ran at him, kicking him in the small of the back as hard as I could. He cried out and I raised my foot for another kick when I saw his cronies running towards me again. I whirled to face them and this time ran head-on towards them.

My fists met their throats and flung them back hard. They crashed to the ground and I stood there gasping for air, my head still stinging from where the ringleader had pulled my hair. I was trembling, but not from fear or pain which was indeed rising all over my body. I was shaking from fury and from the force I used on my opponents.

"You boys are stupider than I thought ya know!" I shouted at them. "How many times do I have to smash in your face before you figure out to leave me alone?"

"You'll be alone alright!" The ringleader spat, cupping his bloody nose. "Nobody is ever going to be friends with the likes of you! Outsider! You'll never be the Hokage, ever!"

They all retreated and the other kids went back to whatever it was they had been doing before. I sighed heavily and sat down on the wooden swing tied to the tree, kicking at the grass and watching as my red hair blew in my face.

_Who cares, Kushina? _I thought to myself. _What they say doesn't matter! You don't want to be friends with them anyway! They pick on you and call you names! You shouldn't want to be friends with people who you beat to bloody pulp every other day._

But it did matter. Somewhere in a part of my heart that I would never show anybody else it did matter. It hurt so bad to watch all the other kids eat lunch with their friends, practice their shinobi skills together, walk home with their parents together. I didn't have any of that. I was alone, and nobody even knew I was a Jinchuriki. Imagine what it would be like if they knew I had a monster inside me.  
Maybe they did know…maybe that was why they continued to torment me day in and day out. Maybe the secret had gotten out somehow. I considered that for a long time but then decided that there was no way that could happen. Nobody knew about the monster in me. They all just thought I was some kind of monster anyway. I sighed and kicked a rock and bit back the tears. None of this was my fault and it just wasn't fair, and in truth it hurt bad enough to make eyes sting with the need to weep, but I would be damned if they saw me cry.

It wasn't until the bell rang that I looked up and realized Minato had been watching me this whole time, unmoving from his perch in the tree. I glared at him and tried to think of something mean to say but I couldn't. I felt paralyzed when I stared into his blue eyes and so I simply went back inside, balling my hands into fists and holding my head as high as I could.

I felt like when he was looking at me that he was trying to tell me something important but I could never understand what it was. Whatever he wanted to say, it was always bogged down in what I was sure was fear that I'd hit him for just looking at me. I didn't understand him at all. He was so timid around me but whenever the opportunity showed up to prove himself in class he was front and center. Was I really that scary? It was a good thought as much as it was a bad one. If I was really that frightening, then maybe those idiots would finally leave me alone. But also maybe what they said would be true…

And I'd always be alone.

A few days later I was on the way home from school, walking through the cherry blossom groves. It was actually a nice day, nobody had tried to beat me up at school and Minato had actually smiled at me. I didn't know what to do with that. Nobody at school ever smiled at me. I was lucky if they just left me alone at my desk. I think I scared Minato though because when he smiled at me I narrowed my eyes and cracked my knuckles at him. The last thing I needed was him to bring attention down on my head. Anything I did out of the ordinary was an excuse for the other boys to pick on me and try to beat me up.

I was walking home and I thought maybe if I could have more days like this it wouldn't be so bad. The cherry blossoms fell and made the air sweet and I'd just taken down a big lungful when I opened my eyes and saw my chief tormentor stepping out from behind a tree.

Immediately I stopped and my hands balled into fists. I was about to ask if he was really stupid enough to face me on his own when someone else came out from behind the tree as well. An older boy who looked similar to my tormentor, with a shiny forehead protector tied around his head.

"Are you the one that's always making my kid brother cry?" he asked me, stepping out confidently into the middle of the road, blocking my way.

"It's his fault because he keeps messing with me ya know! He's a crybaby and a wimp!" I spat back. I wasn't the least bit afraid of this guy. After all the fights I'd won I didn't care at this point. I could go ten rounds with whatever they could throw at me and still come out on top. I'd done it before.

"I'm a genin you know." He said, gesturing to his forehead protector. "And anybody who makes my kid brother cry needs to be taught a lesson." He cracked his knuckles threateningly and I could already feel fury burning through my veins, readying me for a fight.

Before he could throw himself at me I jumped into the air, landing in a tree, and kept going. I'd need height and speed if I wanted to win this fight and since he clearly out-weighed me, geography was going to have to be my ally. I jumped nimbly through the trees listening to the sound of the genin's pursuit. During one of my leaps I heard the sound of something sleek and metallic zinging through the air and instinctively twisted my legs. I'm glad I did because otherwise they would have been grazed by a real kunai.

Anger exploded inside the pit of my chest like a lava-heated rock being cracked open. That punk had actually thrown a weapon at me! I wasn't going to let this go any further. I changed direction and pinged off the body of a tree, launching myself directly at the genin and caught his throat in the crook of my arm, intending to take him straight down to the ground and smash his face in. Halfway there the genin disappeared, transforming with a puff of smoke into a small stick.

I landed on the ground staring in amazement at the trick when I realized I'd made a mistake. The real genin was waiting for me and before I could dodge or try and parry his blow he struck me in the side of the neck as hard as he could with the edge of his hand. As I was flying towards the ground he reared back and kicked me with brutal accuracy and force in-between my shoulder blades. With a cry of pain I smacked into the dirt face first.

_Get up, Kushina! _I yelled at myself. I'd almost got my knees under me and was trying to get on my feet when the genin showed up behind me and grabbed a thick fistful of my hair. Using my hair he pulled me upright to my knees, pain shooting through my skull even as I struggled.

"You can't even recognize a basic substitution jutsu! You're still just a kid!" he jeered at me.

"Serves you right!" his kid brother taunted.

"Your hair is so red and its stiff like thread! Hair like this is ugly." The genin spat, the disdain and belief of his own words clear in his voice. He continued to pull on it sending more pain into my head and neck.

I could feel the hot sting of tears rolling down my face. Why, why had they done this to me today? The one day in recent memory where I hadn't been beaten up and everything had been mostly ok. Would they never just leave me in peace? What else did I have to do to prove to them that I wasn't any different than they were? My pride was stinging too from having been kicked to the ground. Me, the Red Hot Habanero, had been fooled by a simple substitution jutsu.

"I don't like my hair either!" I managed to say through my tears. Ignoring the horrendous pain I got to my feet and pulled as hard as I could, feeling each and every strand as it was ripped free of my skull. I felt as though when I pulled out that fist full of hair it wasn't the genin's hand, but my own, in anger and desperation to be rid of this oppressive mark that made me different from them. I'd rip them all out if I thought I could stand the pain.

I whirled back around to find the genin staring at me with surprise. Instinct from having been in so many fights took over and I used my white hot fury to my advantage. I leapt at him and punched him right in the face before spinning and kicking him in the gut as hard as I could. I launched myself into the air and brought my heel down onto his head, sending him to the ground with violent force. I pounced on him and immediately started to punch him back and forth in the face as hard as I could.

"But even with hair like this, I'm still me!" I cried in both anger and despair even as I continued to turn his face black and blue. "What choice do I have!?"

I finally let him up after I'd turned his face into a bloody pulp and his kid brother had taken off screaming in terror of the Red Hot Habanero.

"Outsider!" he spat at me, throwing the fistful of red hair he'd pulled out into my face. I watched the strands fall to the ground as the genin got to his feet.

"As if an outsider could _ever _become the Hokage!" he snarled before taking off running in the other direction.

I stood there in the road full of shaken victory and stinging pain. I had won but the wound deep in my heart was getting bigger with every passing day. How was I supposed to do as Lady Mito said and fill my vessel with love to overcome the Nine-Tails' hate? At this rate it was going to completely overtake me and consume me. I didn't want to be like that, I never wanted to be like that! I was a shinobi in training; I was getting into this to help people, not to beat them senseless. But I would never lie down and accept the awful names, the teasing, or the actual attempts to hurt me. I would prove to them, one way or the other, that I was strong and that they could not hurt me. When that kid came to school tomorrow the first thing I would do was stand up on my desk and shout to everyone how he'd asked his genin older brother to beat me up and that I'd sent them both screaming for the hills.

But even as I turned around towards home it tasted like a hollow victory. Why, why did I have to fight so hard just be left alone? I could feel the tears starting to well up in my eyes and the pain to squeeze my chest, the deep emotional pain that no amount of balm would soothe. Anger welled up in that sore place to cover up the hurt but there was still someone in the near vicinity.

When I looked up, Minato was perched in a tree over my head and I realized with a certain sense of satisfaction and of even more anger and pain, that he had watched the whole fight. He had seen me beat that genin to a bloody pulp and so he'd be a way to prove what I'd done against my chief tormentor who would likely deny everything that had happened. But also he'd seen the whole fight and how I'd been kicked face down into the dirt and he'd done nothing to help me.

"So is that it?" I snapped at him, too tired to jump into the tree to bash his face in too even though I felt he deserved it. "You wouldn't come down and help me because I'm an outsider!?" my voice spiraled into an angry scream.

"I…" he stammered, his voice thin with what sounded like fear, and maybe a tiny bit of shame. Served him right. I hope it haunted him what he'd seen and that he'd done nothing to prevent it, or even warn me that the genin was coming up behind me.

"I bet you agree with them too!" I shouted. I couldn't take it anymore. I took off running as fast as I could, every step sending a jarring pain up through my shoulder blades and back but I ignored it. I had to get away before anybody saw the tears streaming down my face. I couldn't let them see how much I was hurt on the inside because then they would just come down on me even harder. Somewhere I was convinced they weren't human but some kind of animals, torturing who they perceived was the weakest member of the group because that's what animals do. But I was more than that! I was a human being and I had feelings and nobody, not a single person, seemed to care about that.

I finally could run no farther. I stopped right at the face of the cliff where the faces of the Hokage had been carved into the stone. Exhaustion and an overwhelming sensation of sadness tore through me and I almost lost my footing.

_I only said I wanted to be Hokage because I want this place to be my home! I have no home outside of here! I'm just asking to be one of them! Who wants to be Hokage anyway? _

It occurred to me that I'd never have the drive or true mindful ambition to become Hokage a while ago, but I never said anything about it because I didn't want people to know that. I didn't really want to lead, I didn't want that kind of responsibility on my shoulders, but more than anything I did want to be accepted. I wanted to belong here. And just that fact alone was enough to make me cry myself to sleep night after night. Because no matter how much I wanted it, I was beginning to believe that I was never going to belong here, no matter what I did.

After word of my fight with the genin got out (corroborated by Minato or not I didn't know) everyone was much more cautious about coming to pick on me. Sometimes they still did but a swift punch or bruising kick was enough to quell it quickly without much of a fight. But the isolation never eased, and my loneliness grew day by day. I actually half-heartedly wished Minato would talk to me. But no matter if we somehow found ourselves alone or with the rest of the class, he always kept his distance from me, shirking away in fact whenever I got close. It hurt but I guess I'd earned that fear. I had earned every inch of it. It was maddeningly frustrating, I just wanted those bullies to be scared of me, not everybody! I couldn't catch a break no matter where I turned and I just resigned myself to being lonely.

I can't say whether the days were easier or not living like this. I graduated to the rank of genin and it was a high point to be presented with my forehead protector. I felt like a real ninja when I wore my headband. I'd come a long way from schoolyard fights beating people up who called me stupid names. I felt ready to take on the entire world and anybody in it who underestimated me. But the ignorance of my youth still plagued me. I didn't factor being kidnapped into my plan.

The house was eerily quiet when I'd returned home from an easy mission. I was looking forward to dinner and then getting some rest before another mission tomorrow morning but when I'd come inside there was no voices, and no movement. There was absolute stillness and somewhere deep inside I knew something bad had happened.

I crept into one of the side rooms and noticed the upper window was open which was unusual. Before I could twitch I sensed other people's chakra nearby and it wasn't the least bit friendly. I flinched when three enemy ninja from the Hidden Cloud dropped down into the open window. From all my fights I knew instinctively they were here for me, they wouldn't have waited otherwise.

I turned and ran, knowing that I wasn't strong enough to take on three enemy ninja on my own. I cried for help, running as fast as I could down the hall, but it wasn't enough. I was tackled and quickly punched into submission before my hands were bound behind my back and I was dragged away from the house and into the cold, unforgiving night.

At first I cried in my despair, believing that no one would come for me, because despite having become a genin and proving myself for everything I was worth, I was still looked upon as an outsider. These enemy ninja were after the unique chakra I possessed which could restrain the Nine Tails. When my captors notice my tears, they struck me on the back of the head.

"What kind of ninja are you? Crying in the face of your enemies, as if we will take pity on you. A ninja must always be prepared to fight for their lives. You're not worthy of the headband you wear."

I stifled my sobs and kept walking. I would not give him the benefit of my words because they didn't deserve it. They knew nothing about me and nothing about the reasons for my tears. No one in this entire village did, and what made it worse was that nobody cared either. I was resigned to being led away like a stubborn mule because I knew I wasn't strong enough to fight back and I was too frightened to even try.

Fear gave way to exhaustion. We walked all night and several times I tripped up because I could hardly lift my legs for each new step. But I had developed a plan. Even as I tripped and fell, I wound my fingers into my thick red hair and started pulling out five or six strands at a time and dropping them behind me as I walked. My hair was long enough to cover my hands so my captors were unaware I was leaving this distinctive red trail behind us.

I didn't hold out any hope someone would see it and come for me, but I had to at least try. I had to be as clever and as strong as I could even in the face of such danger. Even though I hated my red hair that made me so different from everyone else, I could use it to help me now, or so my exhausted brain tried to tell me. And the pain of pulling the strands loose also helped to keep me awake but even that habitual sting and burn from doing so was failing.

It was after midnight and we'd reached the edge of Konoha. We'd been walking all this time, my feet were aching, my shoulders and wrists burned from being restrained, my scalp stung uncomfortably from having pulled out my hair, and my entire body cried out for rest. At this point I was just blindly staggering forward, barely aware of my surroundings. No one was coming for me. I was too exhausted to even register most of that pain.

I didn't notice when the first ninja dropped like a sack of bricks. I didn't notice when the second hit the ground either. In hindsight when I thought back at the memory I realized in part why I didn't notice their sudden absence was because what had dropped them to the ground had been moving _that _fast. Exhaustion and sleep deprivation were probably the other reasons.

When the third ninja hit the ground, completely knocked out, I kept moving forward, thinking that it was just a dream and that it wasn't really happening. Shakily, I pushed onward, feeling like I could no longer stand, when I finally realized that the three enemy ninja no longer were dragging me along.

I stopped moving and stared ahead at the road and could make out a figure about my size but I couldn't see details yet. But when the clouds parted and the full moon's light poured down I saw the face staring back at me.

Minato.

"Are you hurt?" he asked. His big blue eyes were full of concern and I think I tried to answer but I couldn't form words.

"I came to save you." He said with a small, contented smile on his face.

At first I don't think the words registered in my brain. The very idea of someone, anybody, caring enough about me and my well being to think to look for me was unimaginable. But then a combination of exhaustion and sheer relief poured over me and the last of my strength gave way and I fell forward.

He was there before I hit the ground, catching me in his arms. I leaned against his shoulder and I realized for the first time how much strength there really was in him. He had knocked out all three of those ninja without a fight and even though we'd been about twenty five feet apart, only my knees had touched the ground before he was there, supporting me.

"You'll be alright now." He said softly. I felt him reach behind me and with an easy pull he untied the knot binding my wrists. His arms came under me and lifted me up easily.

"Hey, wait a minute!" I exclaimed just before he launched us into the air. I may have been weakened and exhausted but I was capable of standing on my own. He would hear no such protests though and he sailed away, aiming for a nearby treetop. But as we moved I caught sight of something in his hand.

"That's…" I trailed off in surprise, realizing that he'd been the only person to pick up on the trail I'd left behind.

"Your hair is beautiful." He said, not looking quite at me, instead keeping his eyes focused on where we were moving in mid-air. "I noticed it right away."

That didn't compute in my head either, and this time I didn't blame it on exhaustion. Minato had hardly ever said a word to me in the entire time we'd been at the Academy together. The most he'd ever said was on the first day, validating my supposed dream to become Hokage with one of his own.

"But you've always ignored me." I said, voicing this confusion. It was true. He'd always watched me dealing with bullies from afar but he'd never stepped in or spoken aloud, in favor or in protest.

"Because I know you're strong." He said. Now he looked down at me, and in all my life I had never seen such sincerity before. The way he'd spoken was with such a strong honesty and even…admiration…I could barely believe it. My entire body surged with such a flare of warmth and joy that I didn't know how my skin was going to be able to contain it. At last someone, someone my own age, someone who I never thought would ever give me the words I so desperately wanted to hear, finally said them.

I was strong. I was capable. I was worthy. I was worthy of respect, of friendship. Maybe even of love.

But that wasn't all. He kept on and forever sealed the way I would feel about him into my heart. I knew somewhere in my soul that after this I would never look at him the same way, and that even if somehow we were parted from each other, I would always remember him as the one who believed in my worth, even when no one else did.

"You're strong, in body and in spirit." We landed safely on the treetop and now he fully turned his face towards me but he did not set me down even though there was a space on the tree limb. He kept me close to his chest in his arms and somehow I'd never felt more secure in my life.

"But this is a fight between two villages. This is different from your other fights, so…" he trailed off, as if trying to choose his words carefully, or maybe just getting the gumption up to say them. Either way, I wasn't willing to wait.

"So?" I asked softly.

He closed his eyes briefly and smiled before looking down at me. "I didn't want to lose you." He said. Again, he used that same voice of sincerity that stole my breath. But now came maybe the hardest question of all.

"Even though I'm an outsider?" I thought I might never have another chance to test my impossible hope that finally at last someone had seen me for who I really was, and valued that person. The fluttering hope in my chest was struggling with all its might to soar to the moon and back and I felt like what Minato said now would make or break that dream of flight.

"Why would you say that?" he asked, gently smiling down at me. "You live in Konoha. You are one of us."

I gazed up at him and felt the warm tears begin to build in my eyes. I couldn't believe it. Here, in the tops of the trees, supported by a boy who I'd hardly given a passing thought to, who I had discounted and believed weak and incapable, was the one who had saved me, both from physical danger and from the despair of feeling completely alone, under-valued, and unloved. Here I realized was everything I had ever hoped, dreamed, and prayed for on my dozens of lonely, cold nights. Here, in the arms of the boy that I had overlooked, was the one who had never overlooked me. It was impossible to tell him how much it meant to me. In every sense of the word, it meant everything to me.

He took me home after assessing that I was not injured and after all of the adults had been pacified and Minato praised for his bravery for rescuing me on his own we were left standing alone once more. This time I was on my feet and I found myself transfixed by him. In that one moment I had a flash of a vision of everything he would become. A strong handsome man that people would admire and praise for his skill and bravery. His intelligence and his soft-spoken manner even when asserting his own power. One day not to far off in the future he would be an incredible force of nature to be reckoned with. How could I have ever overlooked him?

"Minato?" I asked very softly.

He turned to me, acknowledging me with his eyes. A surge of hope ran through me and I decided to pluck up the last of my bravery for the night and ask for what I so desperately wanted.

"Will you stay with me?"

He smiled again and came towards me, gently taking me by the hand and leading me towards the window where the full moon was still high in the sky outside the glass. My hand in his, his strong fingers wrapping tightly around my own, made me feel as though I had a safe place to rest when the world outside became too much for me to handle, but I still replayed his words over and over in my head. He only said one word, but it would forever place him in my heart as the man of my dreams. No one would ever compete with him and no one would ever be able to take his place. My whole life, all I'd ever wanted to feel was complete and at peace, confident in my own strength to look after myself, but also with love to soothe the hurts and support me when I was afraid. In that one single word he'd made me all I needed to be.

"Always."

**_So what did you think? Did you like it? Was I in character? Did I bring out emotions? I hope so! Let me know with that handy review box down below. =D _**


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